How to draw KOALA

Greetings and welcome to this final day of Summer 2023 in the northern hemisphere and the end of winter for our friends in the southern hemisphere. Tomorrow is the first day of Autumn/Fall (or Spring!), and for many of us a very favorite season. Just 95 days to Christmas if you’re counting!!

We have a very fun tangle to explore this weekend, it’s Koala from Spanish CZT Tomàs Padrós. Tomàs has a lot of fun and quirky tangles on the site, to that list we add his 28th, Koala.

Tomàs introduces Koala and shares a host of ways to have fun with it:

I created this pattern in 2021 but I have never shown it. The design arose from wanting to capture the idea of something clinging to a more or less cylindrical surface. I immediately thought of a Koala, with its arms and legs clinging to the trunk of a tree. These four limbs show the four possible positions in which the basic motif can be arranged on either side of two auras.

From here I propose three deconstructions. The simplest one arranges the basic shapes in the same position and on one side only.

Update a day or two later: I was not particularly happy with my first efforts at Koala (on right) so I’ve played with it more and one of these further explorations is more in the spirit of the playfulness of Tomàs’s Koala meta-patterns so I’ve replaced my original example.

Tomàs illustrates the first and simplest set of step-by-step instructions for drawing the basic Koala below including a sweet caricature of his inspiration:

Image copyright the artist and used with permission, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. These images are for your personal offline reference only. Please feel free to refer to the images to recreate this tangle in your personal Zentangles and ZIAs. However the artist and TanglePatterns.com reserve all rights to the images and they must not be publicly pinned, altered, reproduced or republished. (Small side note: if you look at the legalese in Pinterest, you are legally responsible for obtaining permission to post every photo that gets ‘Pinned’. Giving credit or sharing the source link doesn’t count.) Thank you for respecting these rights. “We must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy.” ~ Albus Dumbledore

Another more elaborate deconstruction (Koala Medium, below) shows two opposite and alternating positions. The third deconstruction (Koala Plus) is the most complex. In it you can combine any of the four positions on both sides of the auras that you must imagine, although one of the auras could coincide with the string of a tile. Combining these shapes in pairs or quartets generates attractive mega-patterns with link suggestions.

In addition to some tips I also show some example drawings. In the Renaissance bijou I assume the inevitable association of ideas with the snail (although in my arrangement it looks more like peeled prawns from a Chinese restaurant). I have to say that these are not snails, and that there is nothing more abstract than the shell of a snail, since it is a simple spiral.

In the gray bijou I show a very decorated mega-pattern. This is a lot of fun and full of possibilities.

The third bijou (below) plays with tentacular suggestions or sea serpents with incrustations or excrescences.

The fourth bijou shows Koala in various arrangements. In one of them Koala dresses up as Mooka. It was a lot of fun playing with that hybridization.

The final mosaic develops two ornamental ribbons that play with mega-patterns that add interior and exterior auras. They are accompanied by Punzel, Sez, Tagh, Tidal and Rambles.

As you enjoy any of the tangles on the site, please leave a comment of thanks and encouragement to show the artists you appreciate them for sharing their creativity to inspire yours. Your thanks helps motivate them to continue to share! And please share a link to your favorite tangles on social media. Thanks!

Check out the tag tomasp for more of Tomàs’s tangles on TanglePatterns.com.

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Share your tangle on TanglePatterns

Everyone is invited to share patterns on TanglePatterns.com, you do NOT need to be a CZT. In order for patterns to be considered for publication they must be submitted to me by email. In other words you have to let me know about them.

For a submission to qualify as a tangle it must be a genuine pattern (“a repeated decorative design”) and not “a thing to draw”.

From The Book of Zentangle:

“Keep it Non-representational. Zentangle artwork is intended to be non-representational. Zentangle’s elemental strokes are also non-representational.

We don’t teach complex elements such as hearts, stars or flowers. Tangles are also non-representational.”

Remember that tangles never start with pencil planning.

"A tangle has no pre-planning with pencil guidelines, grids or dots, no erased lines."

If you need a refresher on what makes a tangle, read the A PATTERN IS NOT ALWAYS A TANGLE page on the ZENTANGLES menu bar at the top of any page.

For details on how to submit your pattern for consideration visit the SUBMIT YOUR PATTERN page on the top menu bar of any page on the site. On that menu you will find these two pages:

1. 1. How to submit your pattern deconstruction to TanglePatterns, and
   2. Why hasn't my pattern been published?

The first page includes instructions on how to prepare and send your JPGs. (Please save me time and do not send PDFs). It also includes a link to this PDF submission form.

When your examples include additional tangles from the site, please list them in your email. (This saves me time and my memory some wear and tear.)

If your pattern is posted on your blog, attach your steps and tile JPGs to your email and be sure your email includes the direct URL so I can link to it.

And remember, to quote Zentangle's co-founders Rick and Maria: tangles should be "magical, simple and easy to create", non-objective patterns of repetitive strokes that are easy to teach and offer a high degree of success to tanglers of all ages.

"Keep the tangles as little like 'drawing something' as possible."

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Related Links

1. Looking for tangles by Artist or Type? For details visit the ABOUT > HOW TO FIND TANGLES BY ARTIST OR TYPE page on the top menu bar of any page on the site.
2. What is a Zentangle? — if you are new to the Zentangle Method, start here for the fundamentals.
3. Zentangle terminology — a glossary of terms used in this art form.
4. How to use the site — an excellent free video tutorial showing how to use the site as well as pointing out lots of useful features you might have missed.
5. Linda's List of Zentangle-Original Patterns — here is the complete list of original tangles (aka "official tangles") created and introduced by founders Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas, including those not published online. If you are new to the Zentangle Method I highly recommend learning a few of the published Zentangle classics first.
6. "A Zentangle has no up or down and is not a picture of something, so you have no worries about whether you can draw a hand, or a duck. You always succeed in creating a Zentangle." Thus patterns that are drawings of a recognizable naturalistic or actual object, figure, or scene, are not tangles. A pattern is not always a tangle — here's what makes a tangle. TIP: tangles never start with pencil planning.
   • Un motif n’est pas toujours un tangle — Qu’est-ce qu’un tangle ?
   • Un diseño no es siempre un tangle — ¿Qué es un tangle?
7. How to submit your pattern deconstruction to TanglePatterns
8. For lots of great FREE tutorials on TanglePatterns, click on the TUTORIALS link in the pink alphabetic menu bar below the tangle images at the top of any page.
9. Strings! Have we got STRINGS! Click on the STRINGS link in the pink alphabetic menu bar below the tangle images at the top of any page for 250 different (free) Zentangle-starters. More than enough for any lifetime!
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11. If you have questions about the TanglePatterns.com TANGLE GUIDE, visit the BOOK REVIEWS tab on the top menu bar of any page on the site for COMPLETE details!

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